Part 1
This chapter tackles the Christmas story. Norm begins the search for Jesus as the Son of God with the similarities and differences of the birth narrative in Matthew and Luke (77-79). Through emails with Guilder, Norm unearths the other parallels of the birth narrative in Greek and Pagan culture. Norm asks Guilder if “did a virgin give birth”, the answer is that there are too many skeptical opposition points: silence of the birth story from Paul and Mark, different paths by Matthew and Luke, Greek parallels, and legitimacy (81-82). Norm visits the spots on the Bethlehem pilgrim itinerary from the Church of the Nativity to cave where Jesus supposedly took his first breathe (88-90). After visiting the sites, he smokes a water pipe with professors and students about the history and legend behind the Christmas story. He concludes that perhaps Matthew and Luke “scripturized history or historicized prophecy” (98). They used their artistic freedom to take historical reality but twist it to Old Testament parallels for instance Jesus as the new Moses.
Part 2
Norm concludes that “perhaps there were layers to the virgin birth as well: historical, literary, traditional, theological.” He questions whether if Jesus’s conception was normal it would change his perspective on Jesus and the Gospels (85). We talked about this metaphor of religious scholars and experts peel back certain layers to define and interpret figures and events of the Bible. This line is a great summary of Norm’s purpose of his quest. Each of those four layers are lenses of perspective to view not only the virgin birth, but everything. As a far as how a “normal conception” would affect my opinion of Jesus, his status becomes less important. The virgin birth sets Jesus above human and makes Jesus divine. If not historical, the Gospel writers certainly wanted to use that literary addition of the virgin birth to elevate Jesus to God’s son not an ordinary baby. Normal conception would degrade Jesus to average and not extraordinary, which the Gospels and Christians speak of Jesus as.
This chapter tackles the Christmas story. Norm begins the search for Jesus as the Son of God with the similarities and differences of the birth narrative in Matthew and Luke (77-79). Through emails with Guilder, Norm unearths the other parallels of the birth narrative in Greek and Pagan culture. Norm asks Guilder if “did a virgin give birth”, the answer is that there are too many skeptical opposition points: silence of the birth story from Paul and Mark, different paths by Matthew and Luke, Greek parallels, and legitimacy (81-82). Norm visits the spots on the Bethlehem pilgrim itinerary from the Church of the Nativity to cave where Jesus supposedly took his first breathe (88-90). After visiting the sites, he smokes a water pipe with professors and students about the history and legend behind the Christmas story. He concludes that perhaps Matthew and Luke “scripturized history or historicized prophecy” (98). They used their artistic freedom to take historical reality but twist it to Old Testament parallels for instance Jesus as the new Moses.
Part 2
Norm concludes that “perhaps there were layers to the virgin birth as well: historical, literary, traditional, theological.” He questions whether if Jesus’s conception was normal it would change his perspective on Jesus and the Gospels (85). We talked about this metaphor of religious scholars and experts peel back certain layers to define and interpret figures and events of the Bible. This line is a great summary of Norm’s purpose of his quest. Each of those four layers are lenses of perspective to view not only the virgin birth, but everything. As a far as how a “normal conception” would affect my opinion of Jesus, his status becomes less important. The virgin birth sets Jesus above human and makes Jesus divine. If not historical, the Gospel writers certainly wanted to use that literary addition of the virgin birth to elevate Jesus to God’s son not an ordinary baby. Normal conception would degrade Jesus to average and not extraordinary, which the Gospels and Christians speak of Jesus as.
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